Professional Development

Science Educators Needed to Help Review New Evolution Education Resource

Science Educators Needed to Help Review New Evolution Education Resource.
The University of California-Berkeley Museum of Paleontology has announced that in January 2004 it will launch ?Understanding Evolution,? an internet resource dedicated to assisting science educators with teaching evolution. This tool for teachers was developed with support from the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and is the product of a team of faculty, graduate students, teachers, staff from the National Center for Science Education, and web experts. Judy Scotchmoor, who led the effort to develop ?Understanding Evolution,? thinks ?that it will be an excellent resource for the teaching community.? Teachers will be able to utilize the web site to obtain information on issues such as the Nature of Science (the essentials of how science works); Evolution 101 (the central ideas of biological evolution); Evidence (the evidence relating to evolution); Relevance of Evolution (the importance of evolution in our daily lives); Misconceptions (confusions that cloud public understanding of evolution); and, History of Evolutionary Thought (the history of scientific thinking). Also on the site is a rich resource section that includes a conceptual framework and classroom resources to support the teaching of evolution. Before ?Understanding Evolution? goes public in January, Scotchmoor would like to increase the number of teachers willing to participate in the on-line summative evaluation. Teachers from all geographic areas and levels of expertise and teaching experience are sought. If you are a science educator and interested in participating, please go online to the sign up survey at http://survey.rockman.com/ucmp/ucmpsurvey4.htm, or contact Nicole Presber, the project evaluator at nicole@rockman.com.